Spatial omics in the AI era: Technologies, algorithmic ecosystems, biological applications, and large model...

Spatial omics technologys help overcome key limitations of conventional omics approaches that lack spatial information, by providing a panoramic perspective from the molecular level to the microenvironment scale for addressing spatially resolved biological questions in life sciences. With the rapid advancement of this field, there are significant differences among technology platforms, algorithms, and research workflows, which bring three core challenges to interdisciplinary researchers: the detailed explanation of technical principles, the selection of appropriate algorithms, and the future development directions. This review systematically summarizes the technical platforms and analytical algorithms of spatial omics, compares their advantages and disadvantages in the context of specific tasks and presents application cases across multiple biological fields. It also outlines the emerging research directions and advances in large model integration. It ultimately aims to provide a reference for researchers from diverse disciplines to design and implement spatial omics studies.